pocketmego

I will give him this much. He had to overcome a LOT of Kassar's crap. That ANY store would carry Atari stuff after the crash was a miracle and I suppose Tramiel deserves more than a little credit for that. -Ray

You are quite welcome. Enjoy that cart, those are fun games. -Ray

Just don't play WHILE you carve the pumpkins. -Ray

Simple... If you grew up playing with Mego Super Hero figures you are going to want to collect them. If you grew up playing with Kenner Super Powers figures you are going to collect them. Kids (Teens and 20's) are more or less the collectors of the Nintendo stuff on average. It was their machine. So, as has already been mentioned its a generational thing and that generation is starting to come into its own era of disposable income. We, my friends, are getting old. -Ray

Number 1 is Space Cavern. -Ray

Now this one I'm not sure about. Kassar was an Asshole (admittedly I have heard Tramiel was too), but Kassar made some good choices and arguably these do outweigh his bad choices to a great degree. I mean you can virtually define Kassar's tenure with Atari in 2 deals. The Space Invaders deal and the ET deal. Everything else reflects one or the other. I'd say he has more Space Invaders than he does ETs. Kassar (and this is coming from someone who HATES Ray Kassar) knew his products and he knew what people liked to buy. Tramiel could have given a rat's ass what Atari did best , Software, in favor of making a cheap computer or line of cheap computers that he could use to kill Commodore. So, I'm of the mind that he did kill Atari. First he did so by inventing the Affordable Home Computer, and then he made the C64 even more affordable and got computers into the hands of kids, and finally he drove the last stake through the Atari company that WE knew in 1984 when he bought and then re-directed the company into a computer business. -Ray

I should slap you. -Ray Yeah, I saw that coming. Guess I'll add my opinion on it then. I don't think one action could be responsible for the crash. It was probably a number of things. In 1984 I was eight years old and I probably played more Atari then ever. I didn't notice a crash but then again I was eight. I remember a lot of the older kids in the nieghborhood shifting there interest towards computers but I also remember them getting more in to girls. When you get older you're interests change. I went through a long period of time where I didn't own one game system in my house but I did own a computer. I can't believe that now but it was true, for several years I had no interest in video games. If a large portion of the video game consumer was in to other things from growing up (girls, cars, music, college, computers, etc...) that could totally hurt sales which could also contribute to the crash. I guess what I'm saying is it had to be a lot of things not just one. Thank you. -Ray

It's easy to be an armchair CEO. How many businesses of the size of Tramiel Atari and Tramiel Commodore have you built and run? Though, admittedly true, one does have to look at history in a practical light. Tramiel's Atari (if not his Commodore) made one TRULY momentous mistake after another, over and over again. I mean in the cas eof Atari, it is pretty easy to see the forks in the road he should have taken and in some cases how easy it was just to apply a bit more effort. -Ray

This is what I have a lot of trouble understanding... Nintendo really needed to push the "Entertainment System" idea to get people's minds away from the idea it was a Video Game system. This was, of course, because retailers were still hurting from the Crash. Needless to say they pulled it off and the rest is history. BUT... Wouldn't it have been easier to release the NES sans cartrdige slot and just go with the full on disk system here in the States. After all, the vast majority of games put out for the NES in its first year in America were previously Disk System games anyway. Having the games on disk would have been a much easier sell for Nintendo to retailers who associated disks with computers and not Video Games. They also wouldn't have had to redesign the whole thing to hide the slot. It just seems a bit odd to me to spennd all that money on Rom/cart production when an easier system existed and it would have been easier to sell in America at the time. -Ray

Here you go guys. I am posting a link that shows how AMAZINGLY accurate Chris's HUNCHY was on the Multicart. here is a video of a guy playing the C64 Hunchy straight through with no deaths. Seeing this and comparing it to Chris's game makes you realize what an INCEDIBLE job he pulled off in 1k. -Ray

Spoiler Alert! Here's some Invisiclues The_Lurking_Horror___invisiclues.txt Say, thanks Remo. -Ray

Here's that dragging video I mentioned: http://youtube.com/watch?v=DRhCjglpzh8 THAT'S AMAZING!!! You've gotta give it to the Japanese, they make shit that lasts. -Ray

Currently I'm playing Lurking Horror, I'm a BIG HP Lovecraft fan. I can't get out of the open sequence in the Computer Room. I finally figured out how long to warm the Chinese food, but once he eats it, he asks what I want and I don't know how to respond. (This is the weirdest post I've ever typed) -Ray

Just be careful about reaching for the power switch during the winter! I've blown at least 3 C64's (plus a few VIC-20's) by shocking the joystick ports with static electricity. Also, I'm somewhat interested in MSX computers... however, MSX was never really popular here in North America, so what computers can I get that would actually run MSX games on them? It seems that the MSX standard was actually based on the SVI-318, but the 318 isn't actually capable of running MSX software... But it seems the SVI-728 is capable. Are there any other North American computers with MSX compatibility? Will japanese/european cartridges and tapes work in them? --Zero Yamaha released an MSX in the USA. Someone posted a pic of it, maybe in that other poll thread. I don't know about compatibility for sure but if it's like the CV, it played any software from any region. PAL/NTSC/SECAM output was determined by the video chip your unit has, not the software. If you search around on ebay you'll notice that almost all the carts are from Japan and almost all the software from Europe is on tapes. AFAIK, a lot of the best games for it were released on cart by Konami. The more you look into the MSX the more you see what we totally missed out on in the USA. Awesome and huge game library. Like CV x 100. A lot of games that came out here later on the NES. I know it had a lot of games that later appeared on the NES, did it have MORE games in its library than the NES? -Ray

Just got my latest order in from Atariage and since many of the suggestions on my choices came from you guys I thought I'd share... I got a boxed Galaga (boxed stuff is not my thing, but it is nice to get a better idea of packaging from the 7800 era) This is a good game. I'm more of a Galaxian guy and wish we had seen one for the 7800, but thisis not bad at all. It does get substantially faster after wave 10, but it is still fun. Not a perfect port, but not at all bad. One on One. This is a Fine Fine Game. It was a fine game on the C64, the Apple, and every other computer it appeared on and it is even bettee here. This is where the 7800 got to shine, because graphically this game never looked better. It's easy to control and loads of fun to play, especially if you like basketball and especially if you like basketball of that era. Plus the AI is interesting. You can be moping the floor with the CPU opponent and then he can tunr the table on you just like that. Why it depicts Byrd missing a Free Throw in the opening...that is just one of the kooky mysteries of Atari. Joust - The Finest home port of this game EVER. It is EXTREMELY close to the arcade game and but for some color limitations could easily be mistaken for the arcade game. A fine and excellent game for a fine and excellent game system. -Ray

More likely Geos, which would mean Bill gates would NOT currently be the World's richest man. Apple would be in slightly better shape, and the internet as we know it would be a vastly different thing. -Ray

I should slap you. -Ray

I really like your take on things. However, the C64's ads seemed only interested in competing against Atari and Apple. They never seemed to go after Coleco. Probably because, as you noted, the Coleco just wasn't as available as the C64. Not to turn the topic completely on its ear, but I have learned something in all this looking back on Home Computer history... History is DEFINATELY favoring the winners of the Home PC era. It seems whenever you read anything about computer history, it skips over or devotes next to no space to the classic machines everyone actually owned. Instead it centers on the winners (Apple and Windows platforms). You never see enough devoted to the C64, the Coleco, Aquarius, Atari... That is really wrong, because somem of the games produced for those systems became some of the most famouse games in Video game history and those machines are the ones that changed the world far more than Apple and Microsoft. If these machines hadn't gotten people used to the idea of having computers in their homes Apple and Microsoft would have been royally screwed. Let's remember...Alan Alda made computers safe for Old People! -Ray

Let's finally get down to brass taxes. I did an iteration of this over on the Lemon64 forums. You tell me, at the end was Jack Tramiel a Sinner or a Saint in terms of his relationship with Atari and most notably the 7800? -Ray

Wow, this is really good, you are definately on to something. It looks really nice so far. -Ray

This discussion is going very well and I liek the different perspectives so far. I found this on Youtube a few months back. It is a 1983/84 British Computer show featuring a rare interview with jack tramiel just after he took over Atari. This helps, I think, offer a lot of perspective on where jack's mind was just after Commodore and just prior to the "7800" era. I think will offer new perspective to the discussion. -Ray

I agree. This was a terrific post. i'm also thrilled we have someone of a different age here to enjoy these machines with us. -Ray

I don't mean after he bought Atari, I mean did he kill Atari and help bring on the Videogame crash of 1984. A strange question to be sure. But, Brian Bagnall, in his book On the Edge: the Spectacular Rise and Fall of Commodore, believes that the rise of the C64 (along with other computers and computer games) were starting to make the dated 2600 look its age. What do you all think? -Ray

No, I totally agree with you. I think even a color change would have helped change the image. Because, compared to what people in America were used to in terms of Cartridges, the NES carts looked like something from outer space. -Ray

Yeah, but I believe in my heart that any company could have had hits like Mario and Zelda at the TRUE begining of the 8-BIT age. 60% of what made Super Mario and Zelda innovative were some innovative and unique marketing ideas. I remember the first Zelda ads to hit the states barely showed the game. Just some goon running around like a jackass. Or two nerds rapping... Tramiel could have easily done such things. -Ray